Les Adieux du Fermier, wall hanging

Description

In the C18 it was fashionable in bourgeois houses in Basle as it sometimes still is today to furnish and decorate the reception rooms in the French style. The «Visitenstube» (small reception room) of the Segerhof, a Basle residence of the Burckhardt family, which has been incorporated in its entirety into the Haus zum Kirschgarten, is a particularly complete and consistent example. Integrated in the oak panelling are three tapestries woven from cartoons by Jean Baptiste Huet: La Cueillette des cerises (Picking cherries), Les Adieux du fermier (The farmer's goodbye), and L'Arriaee de la fermiere (The arrival of the farmer's wife). The oak furniture in late Louis XVI style, which comprises a sofa, four armchairs, six chairs and four tabourets or stools (see no. 392), was produced in Basle and is also covered with tapestries; these show pastoral scenes and episodes from La Fontaine's Fables. The owners of the Segerhof placed a single order for all the tapestries from Grellet in Aubusson in 1790.